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Trailer Blazer: E3 2016

Fine. You guys want me to get more invested in E3 ("not really?"), then I'm going to review all the trailers that went up on the site during the event. That's right, I'm smoking the entire carton, for little other reason than to masochistically punish myself for trying to symbolically wash my hands of the whole thing with a Super Famicom JRPG Let's Play (it's over here! Plug plug!).

Actually, I do this largely to credit the hard work Marino did to get all these trailers up on the site for the past few days, and how the lesser known trailers that didn't rise to prominence with showy conference appearances might not get their due. I mean, how many of these could there be...?

(Every trailer review is accompanied with a "Hype Meter" score, because we wouldn't allow Edgework to bust that thing out during the livestreams and somebody might as well use it. I'm also checking to see how many of these games appear to have Grappling Hooks. It was their E3 after all, along with Dads of War and getting high.)

(work in progress!)

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  • The next big thing from Volition, the Saints Row and Red Faction guys. Kinda has an Overwatch vibe to its cast of colorful quippy heroes and what look like hand-drawn special effects mixed in with cel-shaded characters (sorta Wind Wakery, even), but maybe that's less biting Blizzard's steez and more "knowing which way the wind was blowing" after the reception Fuse got after its visual change. Seems like it could be fun, though this CG trailer doesn't give much away about the actual game, except for that one guy has a grappling anchor. (This was one of a handful of trailers to get leaked before E3, but for the rest I'm sticking to those that are specifically tagged "E3 2016" in the site's video library.)

    Hype Meter: Mayhaps on the Mayhem.

    Grappling Hook: Confirmed!

  • Well, it's more Injustice. Trailer seemed to be focused on Supergirl, Gorilla Grodd and rocky new guy Atrocitus, but otherwise looked a lot like the prior game. I guess the big changes will be in how it plays, not how it looks, much like any other iterative fighter franchise. Either way, I'm not really a fighter guy, so pass on this one. Hope it's a hit for Jason and Jeff and all the other Netherworld/Boon/DC fans out there though.

    Hype Meter: Not frozen solid, but in just ice.

    Grappling Hook: C'mon, there's gotta be some "get over here" shit in this. Mostly confirmed.

  • We got Titanfall. For as much as everyone's looking forward to seeing the changes to the multiplayer, I'm into this single-player they showed off in the trailer. Looks like it might be a fun twist on the "big guy helps small hero" mold we saw with Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom and, well, this year's The Last Guardian. Just with a giant mech that talks like the Honest Trailers guy.

    Hype Meter: Well, it's not falling after seeing that trailer. Cautiously optimistic about shooters next year.

    Grappling Hook: Other footage has shown off the grappling hook in multiplayer, looks to be the big new change to the game. Confirmed.

  • That was four minutes of watching cars I'll never get back. Something about the plain fonts and the opera music reminded me of the new Hitman, and I sort of expected Agent 47 to show up and throw a can of spaghetti at one of the cars to kill it. Maybe that's just me trying to amuse myself during a dry (but gorgeous!) racing game trailer that seemed oddly focused on the game's eSports potential.

    Hype Meter: Made me want to fall asleep, maybe in one of those depressing office cots we saw during that one Demo Derby.

    Grappling Hook: Probably not. Gran Turismo is too serious for grappling hook cars.

  • This game still looks like a psychotic Amplitude, even with the short but intense trailer. I'll let you know how I feel about it after I take this wallet out of my mouth.

    Hype Meter: I'm very intimidated, so that's probably a good sign.

    Grappling Hook: The only hooks here are of the musical kind.

  • Glad to see this series still looks as nuts as ever. Can't wait to find out that Watson's a ghost.

    Hype Meter: I haven't played a single one of these Sherlock Holmes games yet, but I'm hyped for the Quick Look at least.

    Grappling Hook: Nope, but it's a more rough and tumble Holmes game with a heroic Jon Hamm-looking version of the sleuth so let's not discount the possibility. Deductive reasoning and all that.

  • Less a new game but a whole lot of new content for LEGO's toys-to-life behemoth, presumably even stronger this year with one fewer competitor around. The Gollum/Sonic thing was cute (though I hate to think of the amount of "blue precious" slashfic it spawned) but seeing all the Amblin movie characters was the more surprising part. I guess that means we'll be getting an Innerspace level at some point?

    Hype Meter: The game still looks very cool and very expensive.

    Grappling Hook: LEGO Batman doesn't leave his cave without it.

  • I figure this is Final Fantasy breaking into the Tales' "Radiant World" crossover business, but I sort of wonder if the reason that everyone looks like Funko dolls isn't part of some dubious marketing crossover too. I love FF, but it's getting harder to keep up with all the spin-offs. Also this game seems lore-dense as hell given the trailer never stopped talking about a dozen different unknown quantities, so that's going to be fun to parse.

    Hype Meter: More hyped than ZombiePie is, at least.

    Grappling Hook: Didn't see Laguna, so the jury's still out.

  • I like that this trailer came out just soon after the crew discussed on a recent Game Tapes how there didn't seem to be any more annual MTV/Motocross games in every E3. This sequel is keeping the spirit of jumping over tiny hills alive! Now in VR!

    Hype Meter: I'm not Excite for Bike.

    Grappling Hook: Man, I wish.

  • The sequel (prequel?) to Pendulo's Yesterday, which is something I intend to play at some point after The Next BIG Thing. Doesn't seem like this game shares TNBT's surreal sense of humor, though...

    Hype Meter: Gotta play Yesterday first, but I could see myself penning some future May Mastery/Go! Go! GOTY! blog on this eventually.

    Grappling Hook: Sadly, no.

  • Tall, dark and squidsome gets another new video game adaptation, though I couldn't tell from this teaser trailer whether it's another adventure/action game or something specifically built on the Call of Cthulhu table-top.

    Hype Meter: On the one hand, I like any video game with a Lovecraftian take. On the other, this is Cyanide/Focus Home Interactive (Game of Thrones, Of Orcs and Men, etc.) we're talking about. Let's say that dial is somewhere in the middle.

    Grappling Hook: Impossible to say. With strange aeons even Cthulhu may get grappled?

  • Talking of Cyanide, their goblin thief Styx continues to branch out into his own series of spin-offs based on the world of Of Orcs and Men. Trailer seems to indicate that there'll be some stealth aspects, which may well have been in the other games too given how little I follow this series.

    Hype Meter: Well, I'd have to play like two other games to get caught up, but it doesn't look bad in that trailer. Dialogue's a bit off though.

    Grappling Hook: What self-respecting thief doesn't have one of these? None in the trailer, but ziplines are close enough right?

  • More focus on Focus Home Interactive and European RPG studios that have nowhere to go but up, Technomancer seems like a potentially curious RPG from the Mars Logs people. Technomancer's also set on Mars, but I dunno if it's a sequel or what. The characters look a bit mannequin like in the CG-based trailer, but it felt snappy enough.

    Hype Meter: Again, middling. I wouldn't put it past these guys to make a decent RPG, but I gotta be selective with that genre these days and there's a lot of competition. Still, the premise piqued my interest.

    Grappling Hook: Mars's gravity is probably low enough that they don't need one.

  • Being from the UK, I know at least one person psyched for the new FIFA. The trailer wisely focuses on something distinct: the game's story mode that follows an up-and-comer through their soccer trials and life tribulations, which seems to be EA Sports' thing these days.

    Hype Meter: Minimal. Even if I had any interest in soccer (I think there's a Euro Cup Contest happening now?), you'd need to be an obsessive fan to get much from any new EA Sports game.

    Grappling Hook: That'd be the fastest way to get a red card.

  • Titanfall 2's second trailer focuses on its multiplayer, which needless to say is greatly differentiated from the first game with the inclusion of the grappling hook. It's always been a shooter with a lot of verticality, between the tall (but not Weltall, Xeno fans) mechs and the jet-assisted parkour/wall-running, so a hook makes a lot of sense. Still, those things are definitely popular right now.

    Hype Meter: Definitely more into the single-campaign than the multi, but looks fun enough. It'll have its work cut out competing with Overwatch, but this might be the game to pull some of that crowd away.

    Grappling Hook: Confirmed!

  • The trailer seemed to include a whole lot of leftover footage from the intro to Star Trek Enterprise and a bunch of developers looking pensively at their computers, but there's no denying that a lot of people, including myself, are looking forward to a new Mass Effect. We got some familiar snippets of gameplay at least, including the return of the Mako. As someone who greatly enjoyed the exploration bent to the Mass Effect games, I'm stoked to eventually play this.

    Hype Meter: Burning as hot as Alpha Centauri.

    Grappling Hook: Nah, we have a Mako, we're good.

  • The new Fe-to-play game from EA's newly minted and Indie-focused "EA Originals" range. Looks like a 3D Ori and the Blind Forest with a focus on environmental storytelling, which doesn't sound like a bad thing. I don't object to the precedent of EA lending its clout to a lot of smaller development teams either.

    Hype Meter: Sure. I think 3D platformers are coming back as the tech for Indie developers is there, but they don't all have to be Yooka-Laylee collectathons (alas?).

    Grappling Hook: The little cat-dragon thing seems to be dexterous enough without one.

  • EA put together this composite trailer of all the Star Wars projects their subsidiaries are working on, including Star Wars: Battlefront and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Since they all blend together in one self-important three minute commercial, I couldn't say how hyped I am about any of them. Well, except maybe that Raymond/Hennig/Chiang Visceral Games one that's no-one knows anything about.

    Hype Meter: See above. I mean, I like Star Wars plenty, but EA keeps putting them out so frequently that I haven't been inclined to keep up. Present me a decent single-player Star Wars game and I'd probably give it a shot.

    Grappling Hook: Only if Boba Fett's involved. He's gotta be in Battlefront at least.

  • Even though they showed this trailer eighteen times during the conferences, I can't really think of Battlefield without recalling Jamie Foxx and Zac Efron being stoned out of their gourds thanks to Wiz Khalifa and his "weed carrier". It seems like it has potential as a big online shooter, but that's not where my priorities are at.

    Hype Meter: I was more hyped to discover Terry Crews is a mouse & keyboard kinda guy.

    Grappling Hook: Nothing in the trailer, but it sure would make it easier to board a moving train from horseback.

  • More EA Sports annual franchises, less having anything amusing to say about them. It was a particularly limited trailer too, revealing very little about what might be new to the game besides that you can do this silly drill jump touchdown thing.

    Hype Meter: Nada.

    Grappling Hook: Probably safe to assume that none of these EA Sports trailers have grappling hooks. Except maybe Grappleball '17.

  • I guess Clem didn't die in the last season, then. This is very much a teaser trailer, showing a teenage Clementine and a new character looking for someone or something. You know, super specific stuff.

    Hype Meter: Sorry to court controversy, but I don't really like the Walking Dead games. The pathos is real, yet I'm not big into zombies or Sophie's Choices in my adventure games. I just want to combine objects in my inventory and use them in illogical ways. Fun to watch LPs of it though.

    Grappling Hook: Unless Molly's still around, I doubt it.

  • I feel like a need a degree to figure out what's going on with Kingdom Hearts these days. The game is more or less the 3DS game Dream Drop Distance remastered for PS4 with a couple other "bonus" scenarios based on other games (like Birth by Sleep) thrown in for what I imagine is some necessary lead-in lore for KHIII. I lost track of this franchise a real long time ago though and this trailer doesn't help. Didn't this series used to have Disney characters in it...?

    Hype Meter: Hate to say it, as someone who loved the first and tolerated the second, but I can't see myself finding a way back into Kingdom Hearts now. Not without spending a few hours on Wikipedia.

    Grappling Hook: Only hooks here are the impending sequel kind.

  • Between this stylish trailer and the gameplay demo at the conference, there's a lot I like about Watch Dogs 2 but a lot that strongly puts me off the same way the first did (which I am actually intending on playing soon, since it came with my PS4). I sort of like that the hacktivists are a little less dour and more relatable this time, except for emote helmet guy, and there's a definite sense of "we're having fun peeling back the veneer of the elite to the ugliness behind" to the game's promotion. Keeping a side-eye on this one.

    Hype Meter: Big Brother 2.0.

    Grappling Hook: I thought I saw "grapple.hk" during one of the monitor close-ups, but I could've imagined it.

  • The big surprise of the Bethesda stream, Quake Champions seems to be the new multiplayer online shooter from the franchise that pretty much invented the things. Usual batch of Todd McFarlane-esque creations killing each other, though there's some hints at the diverse character abilities that the game is focusing on (Overwatch is, again, pretty much the market leader now). Also, great sound design for that trailer!

    Hype Meter: Never cared for Quake or its aesthetic, but there's no denying the good work id Software did with Doom and the work elsewhere with Wolfenstein. These classic FPS licenses are being treated well by folk who know what they're doing, and there's no reason to believe Quake Champions won't also (Nine Inch) nail it.

    Grappling Hook: I mean, that one guy can teleport, so maybe hooks aren't needed here.

  • Looks like more venerable RPG powerhouses are getting their card game spin-off groove on. With the WoW-based Hearthstone making gangbusters, the Witcher series is spinning off Gwent and Elder Scrolls is making this. It seems to be based on the Skyrim version of Cyrodiil, set centuries after the other games, though given the lack of notable characters in that game I wonder how much lore the game will have to make up wholesale. Trailer doesn't give much away - I don't think we saw a single card.

    Hype Meter: Please, no more card games. Unless you're bringing Acromage back.

    Grappling Hook: Nope.

  • So they're just using the name and building an entirely new IP around it? After all these years of wondering what happened to Prey 2? Looks like it's going for a psychological sci-fi horror Dead Space/SOMA angle which visually sorta reminds me of Prometheus, though maybe that's just the gross eye stuff and black goo monsters.

    Hype Meter: I know next to nothing about it, but I like the genre so sure. Moderate to moderately high. Maybe I should've created a numerical score for this...

    Grappling Hook: Unless it's going into someone's eye, I doubt it.

  • Skyrim's getting a remastered PS4 edition and Fallout 4's getting more bonus content. Not really big reveals, but these giant Todd Howard RPGS are basically the face of Bethesda and we were bound to hear something about them.

    Hype Meter: I mean, I've already played both to the extent that I kinda don't want to touch either again. So, low?

    Grappling Hook: Not part of the new content. Volumetric God Rays though!

  • I've heard the Forza Horizon games are a good entry point, especially if you're coming from something like Burnout Paradise, but I just can't get that excited about serious racing games. They need weird hooks like Driver: San Francisco's ghost riding the whips to catch my eye. It's a beautiful trailer and game, though, even if Chris Isaak's Wicked Game is a bit on the nose.

    Hype Meter: Second best game of E3 with "Horizon" in the title. So it's got that going for it.

    Grappling Hook: Unless the Batmobile's in it, doubtful.

  • C'mon, that one brutish Gears of War enemy with no dialogue? I'm sure that game had actual characters in it. Still, it was Johnny V's "Game of Show" so there must be something to this series still.

    Hype Meter: Sorry Big Man on Campus, I'm still not feeling it. Maybe if you added Korea's windjammer champ B. Yoo as a new fighter...

    Grappling Hook: Sadira's webs are close enough. RAAM just has a big knife.

  • The Xbox One S got a trailer too, so I guess I'd better include it. I'm not sure the world is ready for a small Xbox. Given its imminent obsolescence, I'm fairly sure I'm not.

    Hype Meter: Phil Spencer's a cool guy, but if this generation is going to be as short as it is I can only afford one new console...

    Grappling Hook: ...though if the Xbox One S comes with one of these as standard, I might consider it.

  • Arkane's magical stealth sequel is out in a few months, and E3 provided a lot of story and gameplay footage in this trailer for us to consume, including more on the enigmatic Outsider who gives Corvo (and one assumes Emily also) their powers. We're in a sunny new city and it's still as grim and bloody as ever, so I can't wait.

    Hype Meter: Quite strong. I liked the first game a lot, between the blinking and the unusual setting. Dishonored 2 is high on my 2016 wish list.

    Grappling Hook: A supernatural equivalent, at least.

  • The trailer gives us a better sense of the game is and its cast of mostly robotic characters, each of which offers a different support role to the heroine Joule. I'm actually kinda getting a Ratchet & Clank vibe, and not just because of the biological & mechanical buddy format: the game seems to balance platforming and shooting, with what I'm hoping is some open-world exploration. For now, though, it's looking all right.

    Hype Meter: It's hitting some of my buttons and not others, but I'll remain cautiously optimistic. Dunno when I'll get to play it though, if it stays an XBOne console exclusive.

    Grappling Hook: Confirmed!

  • A game about Kanye West's mom ascending to heaven, presumably taking the long route because someone interrupted her before she could reach the Pearly Gates. I don't think anyone knows what this game is or where it's going, save maybe Kanye himself.

    Hype Meter: Morbid curiosity maybe.

    Grappling Hook: This seems more like a "grappling with emotions" sort of game.

  • Talking of Wests living in their own fantasy world, the inspired lunacy of Capcom's Dead Rising series continues with a more chiselled Frank returning to the hero role. The game's Christmas-themed trailer is either promoting its December release or signifying that the game's taking the Gremlins route of turning the holiday into something bloody and horrific. Either way, sounds good.

    Hype Meter: Each new Dead Rising game makes me slightly more invested to find my way back to the series, after the disastrous attempt to get into the first game.

    Grappling Hook: Might actually be too pedestrian for this game, unless it's a cannon that shoots out an alligator on a rope.

  • The five minute trailer is a look at Scalebound's co-operative boss fight, which treads similar ground to some of the footage from last year. Kamiya is upholding a time honored tradition of giant enemy crabs in E3 gameplay trailers at least, pouring out a metaphorical 40 for the mostly dead Konami.

    Hype Meter: Still dunno if I'm invested in this "Draco May Cry" series yet. Nothing about it is winning me over, and I'm a casual fan of Kamiya's game output at best (his Twitter output though? Way into it).

    Grappling Hook: Doesn't need one. Protag just has his dragon flick him anywhere he wants to go.

  • ID@XBOX had their usual brief montage of Xbox Indie games that I tend to equate to that "and the rest" gag from The Simpsons. An assortment of clips from Cuphead, Below, Outlast 2, Deliver Us the Moon, Flinthook, Far, Slime Rancher, Shadow Tactics, Figment, The Culling, For the King, Beacon, Stardew Valley, Hand of Fate 2, Raiders of the Broken Planet, Bloodstained, Yooka-Laylee and Everspace - many of which I know about, others are new to me.

    Hype Meter: For a few of those, yeah. I'll wait to hear on the rest.

    Grappling Hook: Statistically likely.

  • Rare's new pirate game got a lot more explanation this year, being a team-based co-operative game about sailing the seven seas and blowing up your opponents with cannons. I don't know if it's just a team action game like Guns of Icarus Online or if there's more to the game beyond the ship combat.

    Hype Meter: Between the Disciples of the Church of Pewdiepie in the gameplay trailer and knowing it's multiplayer focused, presently lower than Davy Jones's Locker.

    Grappling Hook: It's how you board ships, after all.

  • All I can say after watching that trailer is that someone's been watching Vinny play Sleeping Dogs.

    Hype Meter: Still haven't played the first one. I mentioned that I'm not that enamored by zombies, right?

    Grappling Hook: Nope, but there's squeegees.

  • Definitely not a Halo guy, but that was one of the best trailers of the presentation in my view. Didn't get much from the gameplay, but it's a whole lot of not-space marines fighting not-orks and that's what Halo's all about. I've heard. All units. (Second trailer, with the multiplayer gameplay, looks to be about what I expected.)

    Hype Meter: Zero units (of hype). Again, not a Halo guy.

    Grappling Hook: Didn't see one, but there were a whole lot of people with fancy weapons in that trailer.

  • Seeing Akuma in a Tekken trailer was quite the twist, but my dumb ass thought that meant this was the reveal for Tekken X Street Fighter. Presumably fighter game peeps already know the score, since Tekken 7 has been out in Arcades for a while. I dunno, it's Tekken. They're still making them. Harada's still showing up to press events in kimonos.

    Hype Meter: Not a fighter guy, so it's low. I also have very little deference for Tekken in particular; I regularly confuse it with DOA.

    Grappling Hook: Lots of grappling, lots of hooks, nary the two together.

  • Well, if you were looking to get even more moody and emotional than teens at a liberal college, vampires are pretty much all that's left. The next game from DONTNOD, of Life is Strange and Remember Me fame, looks from this trailer to be an action-RPG in the vein (get it?) of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines or Bloodborne. Something bloody anyway. Looking forward to seeing what they do with the story - DONTNOD's had a streak of art-erly (ge- get it? no?) distinctiveness so far, so I don't imagine this'll be your average vampire tale.

    Hype Meter: Can take or leave vampires, but DONTNOD are a developer to watch. Zero negging from me about this one.

    Grappling Hook: A lot of pointy objects and teeth, but nothing that you'd use to climb a wall.

  • I'm a little intrigued by this trailer, in that it doesn't seem to be the original Superhot but a brand new one made for VR. Makes more sense to me to just completely move the tactical FPS to the VR format - creating this new one suggests it'll be another short tech demo variant. Maybe I'm just being cynical though - I'm sure the full VR games are on their way this year.

    Hype Meter: Unlikely to get a VR device any time soon, but I definitely still want to play the original.

    Grappling Hook: GRAPPLE. HOOK. GRAPPLE. HOOK. GRAPPLE. HOOK. (Nah.)

  • The Division's multiplying with another DLC coming soon, named Survival. Trailer was a CG one, but I can't imagine it would've been difficult to rummage up some gameplay footage for a game that's already out.

    Hype Meter: The Division's low priority for me, mostly because I don't intend to play anything online with others.

    Grappling Hook: Nope, no grappling hooks. Just these iconic hats.

  • "Guys, we just got the new scripts for our "natural, off-the-cuff online chatter" trailer for Wildlands. Make sure you memorize them and go point by point through the game's features. Barry, don't go Off Broadway and start complaining about the liberal media again. Joe, Ubisoft isn't interested in your vape tips. Stick to the parts about how well the shooting feels. We'll trick everyone into believing that joining games with randoms isn't a cacophonous nightmare of racial slurs yet."

    Hype Meter: You can't fight the friction.

    Grappling Hook: Not unless it's used in the production of cocaine, or made out of cocaine.

  • The other Wildlands trailer, the one without the team chatter, sets up the cartels and how they've managed to effectively run the country based on having a lot of cocaine and the quartet of agents bringing him down.

    Hype Meter: There's no gameplay here, but there is a hint that the game has a huge open-world and you're there to cause mayhem for the cartels. That's more promising than the co-op multiplayer aspect.

    Grappling Hook: Still nothing.

  • Now here's an interesting development. Twisted Pixel, of ridiculous FMV fame, have put together what looks like an atmospheric if cheesy VR horror game with an all-star cast of actors. How did they go from Troma to Peter Weller and Alfred Molina?

    Hype Meter: It's going to take a lot to get me on board the VR train, but this sounds and looks promising.

    Grappling Hook: More like grappling spook?

  • Foreigner was... wait, For Honor? For Honor was another one of those games with two trailers: a CG story one for marketing purposes, and a much longer gameplay one that showed up in the Ubisoft conference with a cool bearded guy presenting it. It seems like a very limited but pleasant-to-look-at Chivalry or Mount & Blade - gameplay suggests that you just kind of walk forward hitting the attack button until you get into a game of footsies with a tougher opponent, at which point you gotta rock-paper-scissors the guy before he does the same to you. I hope there's more to it than these trailers suggest.

    Hype Meter: I'm inclined to play anything Vandenberghe is involved with after watching him speak, but this seems like a case of wait and see.

    Grappling Hook: Confirmed! The vikings were using them to scale walls.

  • I really liked this trailer, because I don't get to see LeVar Burton having fun on screen so much these days. He killed it on Community. Karl Urban too, though I bet he still wishes someone asked him to make a Judge Dredd game. Once again, it feels like another one of those multiplayer co-op games where you're all controlling different parts of the same big machine - like Sea of Thieves, but space instead of oceans.

    Hype Meter: This is the sort of game VR was made for, especially if you're a Star Trek fan who has been waiting their whole life for something like this. That said, I didn't get much from the trailer about how in-depth the game is. Might just be a more elaborately choreographed version of Spaceteam.

    Grappling Hook: I mean, tractor beams are pretty much the same thing right?

  • Released the same day as it was announced, Trials of the Blood Dragon is another stop on the descent into madness that the Trials series has been on for a few games now. What bothers me is that they couldn't squeeze Chie Satonaka in here. For all I know, I suppose.

    Hype Meter: I'm about two Trials games behind. My perfectionist nature does not gel well with the tough courses in the mid- to late-game.

    Grappling Hook: That'd be dumb for a motorcycle game, so of course it's in there. Confirmed.

  • Like the last SSX, Steep's the newest snowboarding/skiing/wingsuit/paragliding extreme sports game to take itself and its deadly slopes fairly seriously. Brutally so, even, with those nasty looking crashes. That's some nice looking snow too.

    Hype Meter: Unless it's Amped 4, I'm not that interested in a new winter sports game.

    Grappling Hook: I think that'd probably be a little too extreme. Also, I didn't get the sense of whether you're climbing the mountains or just going down them really fast.

  • Just a brief snippet of this sequel to Grow Home. Looks like they're expanding the concept to include more ways of getting vertical, beyond relying on every planet having a monstrous beanstalk. I hope they keep the collectibles, and figuring out how to get to them, as the focus.

    Hype Meter: Grow Home made my GOTY list last year, so I'd be inclined to say I'm looking forward to this.

    Grappling Hook: Didn't see one, but BUD has a whole bunch of gadgets it looks like. So maybe?

  • Not a whole lot to see in this brief trailer, just showing off some nice new siege tech. I love that even though the character models are markedly improved, everyone still moves in that wonderfully janky Mount & Blade way. Makes me feel like I'm home.

    Hype Meter: Yeah, I'm into it. I wish I could stick through with one these games to the point where you're conquering lands, but I always enjoy my time with them.

    Grappling Hook: Looked like ladders and siege towers this time. I sort of wouldn't trust a grappling hook to work in Mount & Blade even if I had one.

  • The thing about Gwent is that it's easy to get as much of it as you could ever possibly want from The Witcher 3. Especially if you were going for that full deck achievement. Still, this cosplay-heavy trailer is amusing. I like the Asian woman who suddenly becomes a Renfaire-reject Dandelion.

    Hype Meter: It's going to be online focused right? Pass. I've still got all that Witcher 3 DLC, and I'm sure there's plenty more Gwent in those.

    Grappling Hook: I don't think they're introducing object cards to this version.

  • Eagle Flight sounds like a warrior cat name from that one MBMBAM episode. It's a VR game where everyone's an eagle, and they do eagle stuff. Seems kind of light on content, but what else is new in VR.

    Hype Meter: Cacaw more like ca-naw.

    Grappling Hooks: Can't see how an eagle would need one. They're living grappling hooks if you think about it.

  • The last D&D CRPG of any note, this came out last year on Steam to a very mild reception. Now that there's an enhanced PS4 port coming, I suppose it might be time to check it out. The game definitely invokes some familiar Neverwinter Nights stirrings.

    Hype Meter: I have so many damn gigantic RPGs to play you guys. It's creme de la creme from here on out.

    Grappling Hook: Is this 4E? 5E? I don't know what the rules are for grappling hooks. Probably best to excise them.

  • Still a fan of the show, and of the last game, but even I admit that the duo's politics recently has been... scattershot. It's easier and more diplomatic to satirize everyone all the time, I suppose. Even though Obsidian's gone, I still hold out hope that the Fractured But Whole won't become extremely painful after I sit down to play it.

    Hype Meter: Moderately high. There's a lot of targets to aim at with all these Marvel and DC movies.

    Grappling Hook: Part of Mysterion's arsenal, if I'm not mistaken.

  • This is just the sort of stupidity Croteam can unwind with after the thematically and mechanically dense The Talos Principle. Most of these VR games are just shooting galleries anyway, might as well strike while the iron's hot with the most shooting gallery-ist franchise of them all.

    Hype Meter: Still waiting for a VR game that will justify a $400 piece of headgear. A Serious Sam game isn't going to cut it.

    Grappling Hook: Not showy enough for Serious Sam.

  • How perfect is it that the first two announced games for the NX are a first-party Nintendo game and a new game in some long-in-the-tooth shovelware franchise? That's every Nintendo system in a microcosm, there.

    Hype Meter: Watch me whip, watch me say "Nay, nay".

    Grappling Hook: "The Grapple Hook" is an advanced dance technique recommended only for Just Dance experts.

  • The surprise of last E3 and one of the frontrunners for Game of Show this time, Horizon's a very promising open-world take on Monster Hunter or Far Cry with a distinctive post-post-apocalyptic robot animal premise. We got all the gameplay footage we could want this time around.

    Hype Meter: It's up there, though I'm still wondering what the progression is like. Far Cry-ish story and side missions? Or will there be a lot of free-form hunts against increasingly powerful foes?

    Grappling Hook: One of the many traps needed to bring down the six triceraflops you need for the next quest objective.

  • The only way this open-world zombie game might prosper is if DayZ is literally Gone. That's probably harsh - it's a good-looking game, and the trailer showed some interesting "swarming" physics, but that is some well-trod material it's exploring. I await the day when the zombie fad shuffles out of pop culture for a while.

    Hype Meter: Am I being too harsh though? I'm a particular guy in my old age, perhaps. Like the other zombie games on this list, it's of limited interest.

    Grappling Hook: It'd be a useful thing to have with all those zombies on the ground, but I don't think I saw one.

  • Biggest surprise of the show, at least out of everything that made it to a conference. An older Kratos is now poised to murder the entire Norse pantheon, but now he's also got a kid to look after. The dynamic in the trailer reminded me of Blood Will Tell, so that's a deep pull my brain randomly decided to make.

    Hype Meter: Strong. I like the changes the trailer demonstrates, and it certainly looks good. I can deal with a kid companion.

    Grappling Hook: Well, the Blades of Athena (or Frigga, or whatever they are now) act as these in a lot of cases. Kratos might just have the axe this time though.

  • Looks like a pointier Tearaway with an artsy balletic feel to it. I couldn't tell what you actually do in the game from its stylish trailer, beyond some platforming, but it's definitely striking. I could see this being another Journey.

    Hype Meter: Definitely curious about it.

    Grappling Hook: Nope.

  • Spidey's back in this Insomniac PS4 exclusive. It definitely seems to have more care given to it than some of the more recent Marvel cash-ins. The trailer gives just enough away about how the game plays that it looks like webslinging business as usual, but it looks solid enough.

    Hype Meter: Not my favorite superhero, but I'll play a good Spider-Man game if the swinging and combat mechanics are done right.

    Grappling Hook: Grappling fluid might be more apt.

  • Now that the Resident Evil brand has almost no value left, it's probably for the best that Capcom's going somewhere novel with the IP. A VR game big on atmosphere and presumably light on firepower might be the biology-changing virus it needs. And what a logo! So much better than giraffemanblowjob.jpg.

    Hype Meter: Horror games on VR sound like a recipe for cardiac disaster, but I think it might be a big VR selling point too. Bigger issue for me is that this comes from the Resident Evil franchise. Bleh.

    Grappling Hook: Unless it gets thrown at you, I don't think so.

  • Can't this game just come out already? Gotta wait until my birthday? Fine. A new Fumito Ueda game is worth the wait. Please don't kill the dog dragon or I'll be upset.

    Hype Meter: Feels like I've been waiting for this game for a decade. Wonder why.

    Grappling Hook: No dice.

  • You're walking along a rooftop and you see a girl in front of you. The girl is falling off the roof, but you're not helping her. Why is that?

    Hype Meter: For a David Cage game? That dial is barely moving.

    Grappling Hook: I don't think these androids get those as standard.

  • Square-Enix has some big sales targets to hit, so the promotional push for Final Fantasy XV has been nothing short of a deluge. As well as another trailer and a boss fight gameplay demo, booth visitors also took a long hard look at a VR thing that scandalized poor Griffin McElroy and Patrick Klepek. The dubstep trailer on the site is an entertaining if incoherent look at the game at various points, including a lot of colossal beasties and chocobos.

    Hype Meter: I haven't missed a core non-MMO Final Fantasy yet. I'll be there like an anime fan on Prompto.

    Grappling Hook: I think Noct just teleports. Use 'em if you got 'em, I guess.

  • Sony's leveraging a lot of big developers and franchises for their VR push as the release date for the PSVR gets closer, but I'm still not convinced how many of these are full games. Arkham VR sounded like an extended sequence of Crime Scene Investigation, which I suppose is Batman's side-gig. The trailer gives nothing away of course - lots of close-ups of Batman's cowl, lots of Joker being a dick.

    Hype Meter: Listen, I don't think the hype is there for any VR trailers this E3, though I remain cautiously optimistic about VR itself. It just seems like an impossible thing to market.

    Grappling Hook: It's Batman. He has those.

  • I almost didn't want to watch this one because I have the remastered Gravity Rush sitting next to me ready to go. It's a lot of cel-shaded, gravity-defying, vertiginous action with Kat and her new pal. Exhilaration, I guess would be the tone they're going for.

    Hype Meter: I gotta beat this first one before I make any definitive judgments, but I'm into it.

    Grappling Hook: Nope. Not necessary.

  • TT couldn't wait for the whole new Star Wars trilogy to come out before they started on the LEGO games, huh? This is one of those trailers where they don't show any gameplay footage but you know exactly what it's going to look like anyway.

    Hype Meter: I don't think LEGOs should talk.

    Grappling Hook: These are in every LEGO game. It's how characters who can't fly get up places.

  • The toys-to-life market is a vicious one, and we're already starting to see competitors drop out. Can Skylanders stay afloat by calling on the awesome nostalgia powers of Crash Bandicoot?

    Hype Meter: Not for me, but I wonder if Dan Ryckert's going to buy a Crash Skylander because it's a figurine of a classic video game character, like his beloved Amiibos.

    Grappling Hook: There's a Skylander for everything, but I didn't see one in the trailer.

  • A spooky teaser for another PSVR game on the horizon. Not that'd you know from the series of eerie establishing shots that comprise this trailer. Looks like PSVR will be represented well by horror, between this, RE7 and that Wilson's Heart game from Twisted Pixel. Bringing PSVR out in October is starting to make a lot of sense.

    Hype Meter: I might be too much of a wuss. I'd love to see it in action though.

    Grappling Hook: There's nothing in the trailer.

  • I'm digging how many "astronaut explores an alien planet" we've seen of late, between Lifeless Planet and The Solus Project, and Farpoint looks to be a more action-oriented one of those. I think the exploratory adventure genre could do quite well in VR, so here's hoping developers are already busy making them.

    Hype Meter: Seems neat. Hope there's a non-VR version.

    Grappling Hook: In space, no-one can hear you... grapple. Yeah, that didn't work.

  • I'm not convinced this isn't some arthouse CG animated cinema that Kojima is putting together. I mean, how do you explain Reedus Feetus in a video game context? I can only assume Kojima intends to continue where PT left off, given the Reedus connection and the creepy imagery involved.

    Hype Meter: Oscillating back and forth inscrutably.

    Grappling Hook: If that umbilical cord is strong enough... no, let's drop that chain of thought.

  • Strong trailer, looks like a Really Hard Day's Night, but looking up the gameplay elsewhere it sort of sounds like ZombiU, where you keep going scrounging for resources until you eventually die and start over with a fresh new character who's just off their meds.

    Hype Meter: The demo's out next month, so I'll decide how I feel then.

    Grappling Hook: "We Grapply Few"? Not on your life, sunshine.

  • I love that this trailer was tedious in a fascinating way. Playdead's clearly setting the atmosphere for a different sort of monochrome world than their last game Limbo, and reports suggest that the gameplay itself is fairly similar. The impression I got was akin to that one "Classic Krusty rerun" gag where he's in a suit on a black and white TV show asking about a labor crisis. It looks dull but in such a way that you know that something's going on under the surface. Can't wait to see how the game subverts that.

    Hype Meter: I liked Limbo quite a bit, though its impact has lessened over the years. Optimistic, at least.

    Grappling Hook: Nah, looked mostly like business reports and big windows.

  • I'm the last guy to get on board the hype train for a new Call of Duty, but the spaceship-to-spaceship battle in this gameplay trailer and resulting zero-G boarding party seemed kinda rad. It's so far removed from the ugly jingoism of the Modern Warfare games now that I might be into a well-made space-faring single-player FPS campaign.

    Hype Meter: Surprisingly high.

    Grapple Hook: Confirmed! A necessity for astronaut combat.

  • This aquatic game appears to be the newest in the Everblue/Endless Ocean vein of underwater exploration and fish-petting games. It's by a new developer in Santa Monica, not Arika, so I don't know what to expect. Besides whales of course. It looks fantastic though, like an underwater Journey.

    Hype Meter: I'd like to see more of it, for sure.

    Grappling Hook: Unless you count anchors, I don't think so.

  • A new Harvest Moon is always a welcome sight, though this trailer is condescending as hell. I suppose they're aiming their message at Minecraft kids first and foremost.

    Hype Meter: I always like Harvest Moon games in theory, but few have managed to maintain my interest for long. It made me more hyped to finally play Stardew Valley, at least.

    Grappling Hook: More apples than grapples here.

  • The Zelda game captured the imaginations of everyone who watched E3 this year, except I suppose the diehard Nintendo haters. The trailer and frequent gameplay demos at the Treehouse posit the game as an amalgamation of Zelda mainstay tropes, open-world RPG survival and a genuine feeling of freedom between Link's ability to climb anything and the huge map. Its art style is spectacular too - following Skyward Sword's example to find a middle-ground between "realistic" Twilight Princess and "cartoon" Wind Waker.

    Hype Meter: Are you kidding? Hook this shit up to my veins already.

    Grappling Hook: There's gotta be a hookshot. Didn't see one in the official trailer, but we know Link's packed with gadgets.

  • Great trailer that sets the mood, creates some mystery and provides a healthy glimpse of the gameplay which - like the original Nier - seems to offer a mix of action RPG hack-and-slash and bullet hell evasion. I trust Platinum Games to get the job done gameplay-wise, but it'll be a miracle if they can replicate (so to speak) Nier's bizarre and touching narrative. The great music sounds like it's back, at least.

    Hype Meter: Maxed out.

    Grappling Hook: Didn't see one.

  • Apparently Obsidian are just going to keep making brand new CRPG IPs. I can't say I'm upset about that. The Tyranny trailer shows off what looks like another variant of Pillars of Eternity's Infinite Engine homage, though I can't tell if it's more of an action RPG than the deliberately-paced Pillars. Either way, excited to find out more.

    Hype Meter: Pillars of Eternity was my GOTY last year, so... let's say it's pretty high.

    Grappling Hook: Doesn't seem like that kind of game.

  • I haven't been formally introduced to the Mafia franchise yet, but this trailer made a strong impression. Seems like a typical crime revenge story in an atypical setting, and could be the GTA killer that 2K's been looking for. Or it might be a generic open-world shooter. Who can say?

    Hype Meter: Definitely promising. Gotta be selective with these open-world games though, I'm burning out.

    Grappling Hook: Not unless the vengeful hero is using one to suspend a wiseguy out of a skyscraper window.

  • We're in an era of online mech shooters, and Hawken's coming back to get their piece of the giant mechanical pie. Looks like a big new multi-platform reset for the game, after languishing on the PC for the past few years.

    Hype Meter: Even if I was into online shooters, there's getting to be far too many to choose from. You stick to where the crowd is.

    Grappling Hook: What is this, Titanfall 2? (I guess "yeah kinda".)

  • Out of ideas, the Elder Scrolls Online creates an expansion to honor the players who gank others when they least expect it. The Dark Brotherhood has been a highlight of the recent Elder Scrolls games, and now the opportunity to take murder missions from a talking statue has come to the MMO as well.

    Hype Meter: For an MMO? That now has a thousand stealthy assassins on every PVP server? Nooope.

    Grappling Hook: Just knives in the dark.

  • There was an Amiibo trailer for the new Zelda game, but we might as well throw in Waluigi here too. Lord knows Dan's been waiting long enough. The trailer's just a bunch of close-ups of Nintendo toys, if you were wondering.

    Hype Meter: For new episodes of Griffin's Amiibo Corner, sure.

    Grappling Hook: I bet you could tie a rope around that Guardian Amiibo and... OK, let's not kid ourselves.

  • The Vita slash 'em up is now due out on both Nintendo platforms too, each of which has their own touchscreen equivalent. This game looks amazing and I'm glad it's coming out for the dying consoles I own instead of the dying console I don't.

    Hype Meter: More like Swipe Meter? Between 7 or 8 on an arbitrary scale I just invented.

    Grappling Hook: No hooks, just slices. Little golf humor for you all, there.

  • Online persistent crafting survival game ARK is coming to consoles, and so too are giant dinosaurs that will smash your buildings as soon as you log out. If you ever wanted to experience a world where dinosaurs are house-smashing dicks and Ewoks are often part of the conversation, might I suggest Ryan North's "Dinosaur Comics"?

    Hype Meter: There is one open-world survival game I intend to play soon, but this ain't it. Here's a hint of what it is: rhymes with Wedge End of Melder.

    Grappling Hook: None in the trailer.

  • War never changes, and neither does the FPS genre, because it appears we're cycling back around to World Wars again. Now that we're officially out of WW1 veterans I guess we can fictionialize the heck out of it.

    Hype Meter: Like the fields of Somme during the war itself, seems mostly lifeless.

    Grappling Hook: Not unless those trenches are super deep.

  • I figured I'd make a joke about this being the long-awaited sequel/reboot to the incomprehensible Silmarils Amiga/Atari ST game Robinson's Requiem but... it might actually be that? I mean, that game was about an astronaut that crashed on a weird planet and had to learn how to survive, and we know that's a popular theme of late. Could just be a coincidence, though, since adapting Robinson Crusoe for a space explorer wouldn't be a huge leap (for mankind). Food for thought.

    Hype Meter: It's a VR game, so I won't be rushing out to get it, but it looks great and could potentially play great too.

    Grappling Hook: Unconfirmed for now.

  • Omega Force is flipping the script, putting the player in the shoes of one of a thousand disposable humans as they crowd around an enormous beast. It's another Omega Force game based on an anime, and it's not even the most exciting one of those to come out of this E3. (That would be the Berserk one, which didn't get a trailer on the site?)

    Hype Meter: I'll admit to buying an Omega Force game lately (Dragon Quest Heroes) but it's not something I seek out. Especially for licenses I'm unfamiliar with.

    Grappling Hook: Confirmed! The titan-hunter guys have them.

  • An SRPG with an unusual pedigree - it's part of a new studio created by ex-Vanillaware people, and being published by Spike Chunsoft (Mystery Dungeon) and NIS (Disgaea) overseas. It's been out a while in Japan, but I guess they're putting it out here this year. The trailer had some cringe-y lines ("easily triggered"), but it seems like a half-decent anime SRPG.

    Hype Meter: Moderate. Never know when I might be in the mood for a decent SRPG.

    Grappling Hook: None of the classes in the trailer had one.

  • As in, Final Fantasy XV: Kingsglaive. Square-Enix are putting all their eggs in one basket with FFXV, so why they thought another big lavishly-animated CGI movie will help is anyone's guess. Still, despite the familiar wooden acting from the CG people, it looks fairly good if a bit incoherent.

    Hype Meter: Unlike games, movies are way easier to access cheaply (and legally) close to release, so I'll catch it eventually.

    Grappling Hook: Didn't see one.

  • No clear indication of whether the monochrome ninjas of this game are Oni or not, so there's my Oni Chambara joke dead on arrival, but it's a smart idea of using the stage's monochrome design to hide yourself. Might be a legitimately fun online shooter that's a bit more, well, black and white compared to its complex and progression-fixated peers.

    Hype Meter: Really not an online guy. Look forward to seeing Giant Bomb play it though.

    Grappling Hook: Sorta looks like it, but they're actually just jumping at each other quickly.

  • Fullbright's new exploratory adventure game won't have to suffer the "walking simulator" label this time, because it looks like you spend most of your time floating weightlessly. Well avoided, guys. Still not out for a while yet. Hell, they might just start from scratch again.

    Hype Meter: Fairly high. I liked Gone Home as its own leisurely-paced thing, and Tacoma seems to be more of that with a Solaris type sci-fi mystery behind it.

    Grappling Hook: If you need to do any platforming in this game I'd be surprised.

  • From the brief trailer, Supergiant's next game seems to be going for a sort of competitive Power Stone/IDARB thing, with their usual emphasis on style, narrative and audio/visual presentation.

    Hype Meter: I've liked but not loved all of Supergiant's output so far, so I won't count them out. Hope this isn't a multiplayer-focused game, but I wouldn't begrudge them for trying something new if it is.

    Grappling Hook: Kasavin is industry-savvy enough that he might've thrown one in as a joke, but I didn't see it.

  • The other big soccer franchise and the last holdout for Konami as a video game company gave us this oddly Deus Ex looking trailer that informed us that we can "control reality" through soccer. Is it just me or is the advertising for these annual sports games getting more and more oblique?

    Hype Meter: No. See FIFA '17, above. Or below, maybe. Unordered lists, am I right?

    Grappling Hook: Johannes Grappelhoek the Dutch midfielder is as close as you're going to get.

  • Bamco Nandai's newest entry in what I think is officially the most populous JRPG franchise (in terms of core games, anyway) gets a typically Tales trailer that tosses together a bunch of the in-game cutscenes and anime FMV and gives us the barest semblance on what the plot or the characters are like. I suspect dogged Tales fans already know it all anyway.

    Hype Meter: I adore Tales but I'm still about four games behind. In terms of "games I want to play eventually from this E3", it's up there.

    Grappling Hook: Nope. How about a giant magical claw instead?

  • Motorcycle racing game. Seems a little odd to create a game based on an anniversary, but then it's not like MotoGP fans have a lot of options these days.

    Hype Meter: Serious racing games with motorcycles are as exciting to me as those with cars. Which is to say not very hyped, but at least I don't discriminate between two wheels and four.

    Grappling Hook: That'd be quite the engineering reveal for Ducati's 90th birthday.

  • There was a trailer for customizable Xbox One Controllers, so let's review that too. Whoever put the ad together clearly saw a lot of iPhone/iPod commercials for research purposes.

    Hype Meter: Kinda need to get an Xbox One first. I guess I could use it for PC gaming?

    Grappling Hook: They're customizable but not that customizable.
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